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New Delhi / Washington DC, August 7, 2024 — The Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) today announced a new partnership to investigate the economic impacts of Arctic ice melt on India, its economy and global impact. This collaboration aims to leverage both organizations’ expertise to deliver insights into the intersection of climate change and economic stability.

IGSD and NCAER will develop comprehensive economic models to assess how the Arctic changes, particularly with the loss of sea ice, affecting India’s monsoon variability, directly impacting agricultural outputs in India, and its overall impact on the economic health of the country. The research will also explore the broader implications of the Northern Sea Route on global trade and the Indian economy.

Methane and other short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) significantly contribute to Arctic warming, with methane emissions anywhere impacting climate and health globally. IGSD’s research has shown that reducing methane emissions by 45% by 2030 can avoid almost 0.3 °C of warming globally and 0.5 °C in the Arctic by the 2040s.

A detailed single-country multi-sector Computable General Equilibrium model for India will be done to quantify the impact of monsoon instability on agriculture, food security, and infrastructure. This will include running policy scenarios to understand the potential economic implications by mid-century. In addition, a global trade model will be developed to analyze the impact of the Northern Sea Route on India’s economy, considering the effects of Arctic sea ice loss and its contribution to global warming.  

Reducing methane and SLCP emissions is critical for mitigating these impacts, offering the fastest opportunity to slow warming by 2030 and improving the resilience of economies worldwide. Reducing methane and short-lived climate pollutants and understanding the intersection of Arctic ice melting-induced climate change and agro- and socio-economic stability is crucial for future planning and sustainability in line with SDG 13.

Durwood Zaelke, President of IGSD, stated, “this partnership represents a significant step forward in understanding the far-reaching impacts of Arctic changes. By combining our expertise, we aim to provide policymakers with the critical data they need to make informed decisions that protect the planet, as well as the economy.”

Zerin Osho, Director of the India Program at IGSD, further added, “it is essential for India to understand the impact of loss of Arctic Sea Ice on its economy to understand the emerging role of Indian foreign policy in the protection of the Arctic to secure India’s long-term strategic interests. This will help India’s strategic position and ensure India’s path to becoming a true leader of the Global South.”

SanjibPohit, Professor and Lead Researcher for this study at NCAER, added, “the economic stability of India is intricately linked to climatic patterns. Our collaboration with IGSD will help us build robust models to predict and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, particularly those stemming from Arctic ice melt, on our agriculture and economy.”

About the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development:

IGSD works to ensure fast cuts to the non-carbon dioxide climate pollutants and other fast climate mitigation strategies to slow near-term warming and self-amplifying climate feedbacks, avoid or at least delay catastrophic tipping points, and limit global temperature rise. Its mission is to promote fast climate mitigation to slow near-term warming and self-propagating climate feedbacks, avoid or at least delay catastrophic climate and societal tipping points, and limit global temperatures to 1.5 °C—or at least keep this temperature guardrail in sight and limit overshoot.

About National Council of Applied Economic Research:

NCAER, the National Council of Applied Economic Research, is India’s oldest and largest independent economic think tank, set up in 1956 to inform policy choices for both the public and private sectors. Over the past 65 years, NCAER has served the nation well with its rich offering of applied policy research, unique data sets, evaluations, and policy inputs to Central and State governments, corporate India, the media, and the citizenry. It is one of a few independent think tanks worldwide that combines rigorous economic analysis and policy outreach with deep data collection capabilities, particularly for large-scale household surveys. NCAER is led by its Director General, Dr Poonam Gupta, and it is governed by an independent Governing Body currently chaired by Mr Nandan M. Nilekani.

For more information, contact Sunandini Seth, IGSD, +1 313 737 7769, sseth@igsd.org

30 July 2024- China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) released a draft regulatory amendment and an emission trading methodology to strengthen methane emissions reduction in the coal mine sector. Both documents are open for public comment until the dates specified below and may be formally promulgated in the coming months, subject to MEE internal processes. Further details on these two documents are listed below.

  1. Emissions Standard for Coalbed Methane/Coal Mine Gas (Draft Amendment for Public Comments) (open for public comment until 31 August 2024)

China’s current (pre-amendment) Emissions Standard for Coalbed Methane/Coal Mine Gas (GB 21522-2008) was issued in 2008, prohibiting direct emissions of coal mine gas with a concentration of 30% or more. Key highlights from the 2024 draft amendment of this emissions standard include:

  • Adding requirements to ensure the safety of transportation, utilization, and discharge of low-concentration coal mine gas in accordance with GB 40881 (the 2021 standard for security system design of low-concentration gas pipeline transportation);
  • Requiring that coal mine gas with a concentration of 8% or more (the draft amendment also clarifies that methane concentration refers to the hourly average concentration) and extraction purity at 10 cubic meters per minute or more shall not be directly emitted;
  • Encouraging reutilization of coal mine gas with a concentration below 8%;
  • Requiring monitoring of methane concentrations of coalbed methane, high- and low-concentration coal mine gas, and ventilation air methane with details on monitoring locations and related technical specifications; and
  • Providing an exemption for direct emissions of coal mine gas in emergency situations.

If promulgated as proposed, the amended emissions standard would strengthen China’s regulatory requirements on methane emissions from the coal mine sector. However, the amended emissions standard applies only to new and existing coal mines. Therefore, this leaves a policy gap to be filled with respect to methane emissions from abandoned coal mines. Abandoned coal mines in China remain a significant source of methane emissions, as reflected in studies such as Gao et al., 2020, and Kang et al., 2023.

2.   Greenhouse Gas Voluntary Emission-Reduction Project Methodology for Utilization of Low-Concentration Gas and Ventilation Air Methane in the Coal Mine Sector (Draft for Comments) (open for public comment until 12 August 2024)

This draft Methodology applies to projects that process coal mine gas with a concentration of 8% or less and ventilation air methane using flameless oxidation technology to produce heat for power generation. These projects have the potential of mitigating about 20 million tons of CO2e by 2030, according to MEE data. MEE authorities coordinated the draft methodology with the 2024 Draft Amendment of the Emissions Standard for Coalbed Methane/Coal Mine Gas to further incentivize coal mine methane utilization and reduction.

24 July 2024 – From January through July 2024, China agreed to various targets and measures to support the mitigation of fluorinated gas, including hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) and hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigerant recycling and recovery, including:

Prohibition of direct emissions of refrigerants and requires recycling, reuse, and harmless disposal of these substances during servicing and end-of-life processes: These prohibitions are included in the recently amended Regulation on the Administration of Ozone Depleting Substances (effective as of 1 March 2024, IGSD translation, here).

  • Implementation of these prohibitions faces challenges. According to official data from China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, only around 40% of waste TV sets, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners (ACs), and microcomputers were properly recycled and disposed of from 2012 to 2020. For the AC sector, Chinese researchers found that the total refrigerant emissions from ACs were 85 Mt CO2-eq in China in 2019; 79% of these refrigerant emissions arose from AC disposal.

Lifecycle refrigerant management in end-of-life recycling and disposal processes for cooling equipment:

  • On 23 January 2024, the China Ministry of Commerce, together with eight other national ministries and agencies, issued policy guidelines to promote the recycling of household appliances with the target of increasing the recycling rate of household appliances by 15% by 2025 from the 2023 levels. The guidelines aim to achieve the targets through measures such as building pilot recycling cities, cultivating the recycling industry, promoting best practices/models, and developing regulations, policies, and standards.
  • On 13 March 2024, China’s State Council issued an action plan to promote the large-scale replacement of equipment and consumer goods. This action plan sets the targets of doubling the rate of vehicle recycling and increasing the recycling rate of household appliances by 30% by 2027 from 2023 levels.
  • On 24 June 2024, the China Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced during its monthly press conference the next steps for implementation of the March 13 action plan mentioned above, including releasing the Work Plan for Regulating the Environmental Supervision of Waste Equipment and Consumer Goods Recycling and Disposal and carrying out special enforcement actions to control environmental pollution caused by the illegal dismantling of waste equipment and consumer goods.
  • On 24 July 2024, the China National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance announced around 300 billion RMB (13.77 billion USD) of ultra-long-term special government debt funding to support implementing the March 13 action plan mentioned above. The special government debt funding will be used to, among other things, support consumer goods replacement, recycling and disposal, including:
    • Subsidizing individual consumers in replacing their higher-emission gasoline fueled passenger cars (at and below level 3 of the national emission standard) or older new-energy passenger cars (registered on or before 30 April 2018) with selected new-energy (subsidy at 20,000 RMB (2,754.5 USD) per car) and selected new gasoline (subsidy at 15,000 RMB (2,065.9 USD) per car) fueled passenger cars;
    • Subsidizing individual consumers in purchasing energy-efficient household appliances, including refrigerators, air conditioners, and others, for 15% of the product sales price for appliances with level 2 energy efficiency; and for an additional 5% of the product sales price for appliances with level 1 energy efficiency (subsidy per product is up to 2,000 RMB (275.5 USD)); and
    • Providing 7.5 billion RMB (around 1 billion USD) in national government funding to support the recycling and disposal of waste electrical and electronic products in 2024.

These policies would benefit from additional measures that increase the demand for reclaimed refrigerants, such as a government edict that specific types of cooling equipment must use an increasing amount of reclaimed refrigerants to reduce the demand for newly produced fluorocarbon refrigerants and minimize the release of fluorocarbon emissions into the atmosphere. Additionally, strengthened monitoring, reporting, and enforcement of refrigerant emissions reduction and proper disposal requirements, incorporating best industry practices and technologies, will be needed to maximize the climate benefits of these policies and funding mechanisms.

Additional IGSD resources:

8 July 2024 – Today China issued a new policy document aimed at strengthening the management of production facilities for all eighteen hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) currently controlled under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer. All are listed  This new document, the Circular on Strictly Controlling HFC Chemical Production Construction Projects (hereinafter referred to as “the Circular”), includes the following key measures, effective as of 1 August 2024:

  • A prohibition on new construction or expansion of production facilities for thirteen, listed controlled HFCs (except for facilities that already have an approved environmental impact assessment);[i]
  • In situations where there is a need for existing listed HFC production facilities to modify or construct a production facility at a different site, a prohibition on increasing the original HFC production capacity or approved HFC listings as a result;
  • A clarification that HFCs produced from trial production at the production facilities are included in the HFC quota system; as a result, HFCs produced from the trial production can only be used or sold after the facilities have been approved and have obtained the corresponding quotas;
  • A clarification that, for facilities that produce HFCs as by-products, by-produced HFCs are included in the government’s quota management system; accordingly, if a quota has not been obtained for the by-produced HFCs, they can only be used for feedstock purposes or destroyed; direct emissions of the HFCs is prohibited; and
  • A requirement that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, along with other relevant government departments, must approve HFC production for exempted uses.

[i] This requirement applies to the thirteen controlled HFCs listed in Appendix I to the Circular. It complements the Circular on Strictly Controlling the First Batch of HFC Production Construction Projects issued in December 2021, prohibiting—as of 1 January 2022—construction or expansion of production facilities for five categories of HFCs, including HFC-32, HFC-134a, HFC-125, HFC-143a and HFC-245fa. Additionally, Appendix II to the Circular lists all eighteen HFCs controlled under the Kigali Amendment.

2 July 2024 – China has released a draft-for-comment version of the Circular on Strengthening Methane Control in Environmental Impact Assessment of Construction Projects in Key Industries (“draft Circular” or “Circular”).

The draft Circular requires methane-emission assessment in construction project environmental impact assessments (EIA) for key industry sectors, including the coal mining, oil and gas extraction, livestock farming, household waste landfill, and sewage treatment sectors. China’s EIA requirements apply to new construction projects, as well as expansion and modification of existing projects, as specified in the Categorized Management List for Environmental Impact Assessment of Construction Projects (2021). Therefore, China’s EIA laws and guidance documents broadly affect the environmental impacts of industrial facilities in China, including facility emissions of atmospheric pollutants.

The draft Circular requires construction projects in these sectors to assess their potential methane emissions and incorporate methane-emission control measures into the project EIA documentation. The draft Circular cites methane-emissions calculation and reporting methodologies to be referenced in the construction project EIA documentation, such as the Requirements of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting and Reporting—Part 11: Coal Production Enterprise (GB/T 32151.11-2018). The draft Circular also describes methane-emission control measures for each key industry sector. In describing these control measures, the draft Circular references China’s existing pollution/emission control standards. Furthermore, the draft Circular provides that construction projects must comply with subnational pollution/emission control standards if those standards are more stringent than higher-level (i.e., national) requirements. Additionally, the draft Circular encourages construction project proponents to incorporate into their EIA an assessment of the construction project’s synergistic emission control, such as the synergistic control of methane and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions for oil and gas extraction and wastewater treatment construction projects. Once promulgated, this Circular will provide further guidance to the specified key industries on methane mitigation associated with operations at the industrial facilities, which will support the implementation of China’s National Methane Emissions Control Action Plan.

IGSD’s annotated English reference translation of the China Methane Emissions Action Plan is available here.

2 July 2024– China has released a draft-for-comment version of the National Plan on the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (2024-2030) (“draft Plan”). The draft Plan covers critical aspects of China’s proposed actions to phase out hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and phase down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in fulfillment of China’s obligations under the Montreal Protocol and its Kigali Amendment.

The draft Plan’s proposed actions on HFC phasedown include the following:  

  • China will freeze HFC production and consumption at the baseline of 1.853 Gt CO2eq and 0.905 Gt CO2eq in 2024. In 2029, HFC production and consumption will be reduced by 10% from the baseline.
  • China will further strengthen the monitoring, reporting and verification of HFC-23 by-production from HCFC-22 production facilities and encourage the adoption of HFC-23 re-utilization technologies.
  • China will, as of 1 January 2030, prohibit the use of refrigerants with GWP >150 in the air conditioning systems of M1 vehicles for which manufacturers are seeking motor vehicle type approval.
  • China will prohibit, as of 1 January 2026, the production of refrigerators using HFC refrigerants in the household appliance sector.
  • China will encourage the use of R290 refrigerant and, as of 1 January 2029, prohibit the production of room air conditioners using R410A (a blend of HFC-32 and HFC-125) refrigerant intended for sale in the domestic market.
  • China will prohibit, as of 1 January 2029, the use of refrigerants with GWP > 750 in unitary air conditioners and duct-fed air conditioning (heat pump) units and the use of refrigerants with GWP >2,500 in other refrigeration equipment in the commercial refrigeration sector (except for equipment with an evaporating temperature of -50℃ or below).
  • China will prohibit, as of 1 January 2026, the production of fire extinguishers using HFC-23 and HFC-236fa as fire extinguishing agents.
  • China will improve its atmospheric monitoring network and emission-source monitoring and strengthen its supervision and enforcement of Montreal Protocol-related compliance.

For additional regulatory background see IGSD’s English reference translation of the amended Regulation on the Administration of Ozone Depleting Substances, available here.

24 – 29 May 2024, Brazil – Amid the worst floods in the history of the Brazilian State Rio Grande do Soul, a historic climate gathering unfolded in the heart of the Amazon: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights convened its second groundbreaking hearing to address the Advisory Opinion on “The Climate Emergency and Human Rights,” bringing the stark realities of climate change to the forefront of States’ human rights obligations.

A Call to Action

Judge Nancy Hernández López, President of the Court, set the tone with a powerful call to action in her opening remarks:

“There are two fundamental issues that are the reason for this Session: the call for the care of our planet and democratic resilience, and the role of judges in this context.”

Her words resonated deeply as the session began amidst the human suffering due to the extreme weather in Rio Grande Do Sul—a blunt reminder of the urgency of Court’s mission.

Context

The hearings were held both in Brasilia, the federal capital of Brazil, and Manaus, the capital of the State of Amazonas. They occurred amid historic flooding in Brazil, with impacts similar to a Category 5 hurricane with a cost of at least 10 billion reais (US$1.9 billion). As of 27 May, over 2.3 million people were affected by the massive flooding, with 169 reported deaths, 56 reported missing persons, 600,000 displaced persons, and 56,000 in shelters. Climate change made the event more than twice as likely and around six to nine percent more intense, according to the World Weather Attribution group.

Following three days of hearing in Bridgetown, Barbados, the Court organized an additional four days in Brazil where they heard from a diverse array of voices. From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, 116 delegations—comprising States, Indigenous communities, environmental defenders, NGOs, scientists, academic institutions, and youth advocates—shared their testimonies. These included children, women leaders, and frontline communities who have faced the brunt of climate change, many of whom had lost everything.

Leadership Engagement

The Court’s engagement included meeting with Brazilian President Lula da Silva, and previously with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley. These discussions underscored the need for a concerted human rights-based approach to tackling the climate crisis.

Highlighting Climate Science and the Need to Move from Voluntary to Mandatory Measures to Address the Climate Emergency

IGSD worked closely with partner organizations to put a human face to the climate crisis and ensure that the Court heard different voices that detailed the extent of the climate emergency and the need to use a human rights approach based on the latest science to solve this crisis. Many of the groups brought critical climate messages to the fore, including the need for fast, mandatory climate mitigation of methane and other short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) to avoid tipping points, the need for a new human right to resilience (to balance States’ mitigation and adaptation obligations), and the importance of legal standing for youth and future generations.

IGSD partners included Centro de Derechos Humanos y Ambiente (CEDHA), Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL), Global Action Plan, Kyklos, Kené, Observatorio por la Justicia Marina, CEMDA, Confederation Mapuche, and ALLIED among others, along with various universities. These partners testified about the critical importance of fast mitigation strategies, particularly in light of the threat of looming climate tipping points, with many also testifying about the need to reduce emissions of methane and other short-lived climate pollutants.

Resilience & Voices from the Frontlines

Resilience emerged as a central theme throughout the hearings. Judges of the Inter-American Court highlighted the need to build and maintain resilience and asked several questions on how an Advisory Opinion could help with the resilience needed on the ground. IGSD was the first organization to articulate the human right to resilience in its brief presented to the Court.

The most poignant moments came from the testimonies of those directly impacted by climate change. Frontline and displaced communities shared their harrowing experiences with sea level rise, floods, droughts, and extreme weather events. The Court listened to the voices of marginalized and vulnerable groups, including Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, women, LGBTQ+ groups, and disabled persons. Their stories underscored the imperative to slow the rate of warming in the near term through effective action that can impact global temperature in the short term and the adaptation needs and limitations.

As the hearings drew to a close, the Court reflected on the unprecedented participation: “This concludes the oral phase of the Advisory Opinion with the largest participation in the history of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.”

Next Steps

This historic legal process will end with a specific Advisory Opinion on States’ human rights obligations vis a vis the climate emergency. These hearings have already highlighted the immense human cost of the climate crisis and reinforced the necessity of a human rights-based approach based on science to climate resilience through fast mitigation and adaptation.

For further details seeInter-American Court of Human Rights Press Release, Sesiones Históricas en Brasil: Concluye La Audiencia Sobre la Emergencia Climática, and also Folha de S. Paulo, Cortar superpoluentes pode evitar 0,6°C de aquecimento até 2050, diz relatório.

3 June 2024 – Today China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) issued the Administrative Measures on Natural Gas Utilization (see English reference translation) to regulate the utilization of domestically produced and imported natural gas in China.[1] The Measures provide that the NDRC and the National Energy Administration are responsible for the nationwide administration of natural gas utilization.

The Measures divide natural gas uses into prioritized, restricted, prohibited, and permitted categories. This regulatory categorization enables the Chinese government to promote natural gas uses that China deems part of its transition to green and low-carbon energy system development.

The “prioritized” category of natural gas utilization includes, for example, urban-resident gas consumption for cooking and heating water. This category also includes using natural gas for peak power-plant projects, where the Chinese government determines that the identified sources of natural gas are economically sustainable. Prioritized natural gas utilization projects may receive government support through favorable policies for planning, land use, financing, and taxation.

The “restricted” category of natural gas utilization includes, for instance, facilities that use natural gas as a raw material to produce methanol (CH₃OH) and projects that use natural gas as a replacement for coal in methanol production. New facility construction and expansion of existing production capacity are not permissible for projects in this restricted category.

The “prohibited” natural gas utilization category includes only synthetic ammonia (NH3) production through a natural gas conversion process at atmospheric pressure. China has issued additional policy document to accelerate the phaseout of such projects.

The “permitted” natural gas utilization category covers projects that are not listed in the aforementioned prioritized, restricted, or prohibited categories and that are consistent with relevant national Chinese laws, regulations, and policies. Permitted projects may continue to develop but will not receive government promotion through supportive policies. The permitted category includes, for example, coal-to-natural gas projects that the government views as having environmental and economic benefits in the construction material, electromechanical, textile, petrochemical, metallurgy, etc.,[2] sectors, as well as oil or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)-to-natural-gas (regasification) projects and new projects which use natural gas as fuel in the aforementioned sectors.

It is also noteworthy that the Measures require enhancing industrial-gas emissions recovery and strictly controlling venting. The Measures further provide that natural gas with carbon dioxide (CO₂) content of 20% or more may be comprehensively utilized.

The Measures will enter into effect 1 August 2024. See IGSD’s annotated, English reference translation of the Administrative Measures on Natural Gas Utilization.

Additional IGSD resources:

[1] Many working on preventing devastating climate change are shifting from “natural gas” to “fossil gas” or “methane gas.” We use natural gas here, as the Chinese title of the Measures uses this term (天然气).

[2] The original Chinese measures use “etc.” at the end of the industry-sector list. The use of “etc.” (等) is common in such measures, providing regulatory authorities with interpretive flexibility.

29 May 2024 – China’s State Council issued the Action Plan for Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction in 2024-2025 (hereinafter referred to as the “Action Plan” or “Plan”) on 29 May 2024. The Action Plan announces major energy saving and carbon reduction targets that China aims to achieve by the end of 2025. The Action Plan also identifies sectoral priorities and relevant management and support mechanisms that will enable the achievement of the Plan’s targets. Quantitative targets in the Plan include increasing the percentage of non-fossil fuel consumption in China to about 18.9% in 2024 and around 20% in 2025; and reducing about 130 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually in 2024 and 2025.

Although the Action Plan does not explicitly include non-CO2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets, some targets and actions included in the Plan can strengthen and serve as references for non-CO2 GHG emissions reduction advocacy efforts. For example, the Plan specifies:

  • “Strict and reasonable” control of coal consumption, with a focus on reduction of coal consumption for non-power usages;
  • Guiding the development of the oil and gas industry and accelerating the large-scale development of unconventional oil and gas resources such as shale oil (gas), coalbed methane, and tight oil (gas), etc.;
  • Promoting non-fossil fuel consumption and specifying that, by the end of 2025, the share of China’s power generation from non-fossil fuel sources shall reach about 39% nationwide;
  • Carrying out energy saving and carbon reduction actions in entities that rely fully or partially on government funding and specifying that, by the end of 2025, these entities’ share of coal consumption will be reduced to less than 13%, and national government agencies’ share of new cooling equipment with advanced levels of energy efficiency shall reach 80%; (the energy efficiency criteria for “advanced levels” are defined here); and
  • Improving appliance efficiency and strengthening recycling and reuse. By 2025, the share of energy-efficient products shall be raised to 40% and 60%, respectively, of all commercial and residential cooling equipment in use.

Countries such as China must adopt measures to simultaneously reduce CO2 and non-CO2 GHG emissions. Cutting super climate pollutants, in particular the species of non-CO2 pollutants referred to as short-lived climate pollutants—black carbon, methane (CH4), tropospheric ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)—can avoid four times more warming at 2050 than CO2 cuts alone can, and reduce the rate of global warming by half. Furthermore, if HFC phasedown is paired with improved energy efficiency and sound lifecycle refrigerant management, emission reductions could be doubled (or more) with the adoption of best practice policies. Slowing the rate of warming in the near term reduces the risk of climate extremes that scale with the rate of warming and threaten to accelerate climate feedbacks and trigger a cascade of irreversible tipping points.

Additional IGSD China resources:

A cultural transformation is needed says Pope “akin to an ecological conversion”

20 May 2024 – Last week Pope Francis, along with the Vatican Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, issued a call for Planetary Call to Action for Climate Change Resilience. The three-day Vatican Summit issued a Compact calling for reducing the rate of global warming by half in the near term with a “sprint” to rapidly reduce methane and the other super climate pollutants joined with the “marathon” to zero-out CO2 through decarbonization, explaining that this combination is the fastest and most effective strategy to slow warming, keep the 1.5ºC limit in sight, and reduce the risk of triggering irreversible tipping points.

Doing everything in our power to rapidly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and bend the warming curve by 2050 to limit temporary overshoot to below 2ºC and to limit the warming to 1.5ºC as soon as possible, is the first pillar of MAST …[The three MAST pillars are: Mitigation to reduce climate risks; Adaptation to manage unavoidable risks; and Societal Transformation to enable mitigation and adaptation] and also prioritizing nature-based solutions in the proactive removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. We must drastically reduce four short-lived climate pollutants (methane, black carbon soot, tropospheric ozone, and HFCs) to reduce the rate of warming by half in the short term (<25 years). We need massive acceleration of the global decarbonization process by transitioning away from fossil fuels during the same time.

Pope Francis stated:

“The destruction of the environment is an offense against God, a sin that is not only personal but also structural, one that greatly endangers all human beings, especially the most vulnerable in our midst, and threatens to unleash a conflict between generations” (Address to COP28, Dubai, 2 December 2023). This is the question: Are we working for a culture of life or for a culture of death? You have answered that we must heed the cry of the earth, hear the plea of the poor, and be attentive to the aspirations of the young and the dreams of children! We have a grave responsibility to ensure that their future is not denied them.…

The 46 less developed countries – mostly African – represent only 1% of global CO2 emissions, whereas the nations of the G20 are responsible for 80% of those emissions…. The refusal to act quickly to protect the most vulnerable who are exposed to climate change caused by human activity is a serious offence and a grave violation of human rights….

In light of this planetary crisis, I add my voice to your heartfelt appeal.

First, there is a need to adopt a universal approach and a rapid and resolute activity capable of effecting changes and political decisions.  

Second, there is a need to invert the global warming curve by efforts to decrease by a half the rate of warming within the brief span of a quarter-century. Likewise, there is a need to aim for global de-carbonization and the elimination of dependence on fossil fuels.

Third, the great quantities of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere must be eliminated through an environmental management programme that will span several generations. 

Prominent governors, mayors, and faith leaders from around the world signed the call for Culture Action, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Anne Hidalgo of Paris, Mayor Sadiq Khan of London, Mayor Roberto Gualtieri of Rome, and Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston, as well as governors and mayors from Brazil, Germany Italy, Kenya, Spain, and Taiwan. Climate experts signing the call for action included Hoesung Lee, 2015-2023 Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Gina McCarthy, former White House National Climate Advisor, and World Health Organization Chief Scientist Dr. Jeremy Farrar.

Two experts from IGSD signed, IGSD Chief Scientist, Dr. Gabrielle Dreyfus and IGSD Director of Climate Policy, Romina Picolotti; both also made presentations at the Summit and both are co-authors of the Planetary Culture Action for Climate Change Resilience.

The Vatican summit was spearheaded by Professor Veerabhadran Ramanathan. In 1975, Professor Ramanathan was the first scientist to discover the significant greenhouse effects of non-CO2 gases and aerosols, including short-lived climate pollutants. His discovery on the warming effects of chlorofluorocarbons ensured that the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer included climate effects.

Over the past 15 years, Professor Ramanathan has been a frequent co-author with IGSD of science and policy papers on the need for speed to bend the warming curve, including a 2011 workshop at the Vatican Pontifical Academy of Sciences on the Fate of Mountain Glaciers in the Anthropocene, a chapter in the book from that workshop published by the Vatican, and a chapter in a second book published by the Vatican, Health of People, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility: Climate Change, Air Pollution and Health (2020). 

Our collaboration also includes two seminal papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) both of which are ranked higher than 99% of their contemporaries by Altmetric:

For further information on the Vatican Summit, see Planetary Call to Action for Climate Change Resilience. See also From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience (15-17 May 2024).

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